Unfortunately the Skystar2 neither supports any physical CAM or viewing cards. It is possible to use software CAM emulators with the Skystar2, however as there is no way of using an official viewing card with a software CAM, they currently all rely on key files in order to decode encrypted files.

Just note that the discussion of unofficially watching pay TV is not allowed here, so you will need to look around elsewhere for more information on software CAMs. The popular freeware Satellite TV tuner software ProgDVB supports software CAMs as plugins.

Be careful about choosing such a small dish, unless you plan on tuning a very strong satellite. For example within Ireland, 80cm is the recommended minimum for the Astra 19.2E and Hotbird 13E foot prints, where as 60cm will be fine for tuning in BBC Digital free-to-air on Astra 28.2E. The following link gives a list of satellites you can tune, what channels are on each satellite including tuning info, the encryption channels may use as well as the footprint of the transponders:www.lyngsat.com

Just make sure your dish comes with a mounting bracket, although most basic dishes do come with a wall-mount. When chosing the LNB, go an offset LNB with the lowest noise rating as you can afford (0.3dB is as low as it gets). Don't choose a C120 LNB as these are used on prime focus dishes. Pretty much all dishes under 1 metre are offset.

Ensure the 10 metres of cable will reach from the dish to the PC. When choosing the cable, go for foam filled or higher grade cable. It may cost a few quid extra than the budget cable, but it will prevent moisture running down the core. The basic satellite cable has an air gap between the shielding and centre core and I have seen cases where water had seeped in the cable and ran all the way to the back of the satellite receiver. I found it difficult not to laugh when a neighbour told me 'My satellite receiver is not working properly and seems to have sprung a leak!' :eek:

I would recommend leaving an extra 1/2 metre slack or so at the dish and about the same at the PC end. Finally, don't forget to get some LNBF connectors for the ends of your cable

Unfortunately a TV tuner is not compatible with satellite. A satellite TV tuner tunes between 950MHz and 2150MHz (the frequency range the LNB down converts the high frequency satelltie transponders of 9.75GHz to 12.75GHz to). A TV tuner can only tune up to around 900MHz depending on the tuner. Finally a satellite TV tuner sends either 12 volts or 18 volts to power the LNB and tell it whether to switch to vertical or horizontal polarisation respectively as well as a switchable 22kHz tone to tell the LNB whether to switch between the higher or lower band.

If you are looking for recording capability, ProgDVB, DVB Viewer (which ships with the Skystar2) as well as most other satelltie DVB tuner software will offer recording capabilities. As satellite TV is already encoded in MPEG2 digital with MPEG2/AC3 audio, all the tuner software effectively does is capture the broadcast stream and place it in a file.

As a matter of interest, do you plan on picking up more than one satellite on your dish or do you plan on connecting more than one receiver to the one satellite?

For picking up two or more satellites with the same dish, you will need a twin LNB bracket or a dual head LNB. The most common dual-LNB bracket is a 6 degree bracket, which allows you to pick up two satellites that are 6 degrees apart, such as Astra 19.2E and Hotbird 13E. The other popular combination is Astra 28.2E and Ebird 33E, although this combination is used to pick up BBC Digital and satellite based broadband (Skystar2 supports running as a satellite broadband modem, but quite expensive unless you don't have any other forum of terrestrial broadband in your area). There are other brackets that allow a variation of 3 degrees up to 20 degrees that I have seen. I would recommend going no more than 6 degrees unless you plan on going for a larger dish since the signal gradually fades away from the main focal point.

If you plan on connecting two or more receivers to your dish, then you will need an LNB with two or more LNBF's. The common combinations are 2, 4 and 8. For example if you plan on having three satellite receivers including your Skystar2, then you will need to go for the 4-output LNB (unless you come across a 3-output version).

When you connect two or more LNBs to your satellite receiver (in your case the Skystar2), you will need to use a DiSEqC switch to allow the receiver to switch between the satellites. I would recommend going for a 4-way DiSEqC switch as this allows you to add satellites later on if you wish.

With a fixed 6 degree twin-head LNB (LNB with two heads with the feeds spaced 6 degrees apart), the LNB itself generally has a built in 2 way DiSEqC switch, so all you need is one cable from the dish to your PC. Most Twin-head LNBs have two LNB outs to allow the connection of a second satellite receiver.

When setting up a dish with either a 6-degree bracket or a dual-head LNB, you move your dish to pick up one satellite. Then the 2nd satellite should automatically fall on the 2nd LNB. If you are at the back of the dish, the LNB on the right will have a more Eastern angle to the LNB on the left, since the dish 'mirrors' the satellites. I made the mistake of not taking the mirroring into account when I first set up a dish with two LNBs. In this case, you simply swap satellites on the receiver (e.g. satellites the 'A' and 'B' DiSEqC ports are on). For a bracket where you can vary how far the LNBs are part, you position them a small distance from the dish arm (unless one LNB is fixed to the bracket), move the dish until one LNB comes in and move the other LNB along the bracket until the 2nd satellite comes in. Finally, in either case, you will need to adjust the dish height to compensate between the two LNBs, especially if you use a bracket that offers greater than 6 degress.

Finally, an LNB standards for Low Noise Block, just in case you are curious

A CI slot closely resembles a PCMCIA slot on a laptop. In fact a CAM is actually a PC Card and will fit in a PCMCIA slot of a laptop. However, even if you get a PCMCIA PCI adaptor for your PC or have a laptop and a USB version of the Skystar2, I am not aware of any software or plugin that makes use of a CAM in a PCMCIA slot.

If you are interested in using a CAM with your PC to use an official viewing card, you will need a satellite DVB PCI card that has a CI slot.

If you are interested in using a CAM with your PC to use an official viewing card, you will need a satellite DVB PCI card that has a CI slot.

Not exactly... it is possible to use a Phoenix interface in conjunction with a cam emulator like Poor Man's CAM, see JoshyFun's DVB Website.

"Poor Man's CAM" software is a MultiDec and DVBCore plugin that allow you to use your legal TV subscription card to see your currently subscribed channels in your computer using an easy and cheap Phoenix interface. This feature will allow you to record in MPEG2 format in your harddisk too.

This is a perfectly legal solution that allows to use you regular TV subscription card and see only the channels you have paid for.

theforbidden1:

does it came with cam? or is there any program out there that emulates a CAM?

Thanks for the info. Up until you mentioned this, I was not aware of any software CAM / plugin that could make use of an official viewing card, let alone a way to use viewing cards with a PC without a Common Interface and CAM. The phoenix interface (built into most smartcard programmers) costs something like Â£30 to Â£50 depending on the programmer, so it would be quite a significant saving over a PCI DVB card with CI along with forking out for a CAM.

The only drawback is that there seems to be only CAM emulation for Seca, Irdeto and Nagravision that makes use of a viewing card. For example if one wanted to watch programming encrypted in Viaccess using a viewing card, a PCI DVB card with CI and Viaccess/compatible CAM would still be required.

The phoenix interface (built into most smartcard programmers) costs something like Â£30 to Â£50 depending on the programmer...

Aww... really? Here in Italy you'd be able to find a phoenix interface for about 15 Euros...

SeÃ¡n:

The only drawback is that there seems to be only CAM emulation for Seca, Irdeto and Nagravision that makes use of a viewing card. For example if one wanted to watch programming encrypted in Viaccess using a viewing card, a PCI DVB card with CI and Viaccess/compatible CAM would still be required.

I must say that I'm not an expert on CAM emus... I have a SkyStar 2 but I've never used PoorMan's Cam. I've heard that it it a good solution, but I cannot speak for my personal experience. Sometimes I record from RAI1, RAI2, RAI3 italian channels, which are FTA (at the moment...)

Googleing around you can find also references to Via, Via2, and even NDS ( :rolleyes: ) cam emulators, but I don't know if they work or not (expecially the last one! :bigsmile: )

can i purchase a blank cam or a programable cam? in order to only purchase the apropriate cards? for what i read i nead the cam and the card... .. . does that means a cam will acept all cards or does it nead an specific card?

let me see if i get it, the cards are the way that payTv guys set up to charge for the service? am i right? and when can i purchase foreigin countrys pay tv cards?